1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to a semiconductor circuit testing system which is used in a semiconductor device testing system, and in more particular it relates to a control device of a semiconductor device testing system which performs yield control and automatic collection of measurement data, and stops the probing device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In prior semiconductor device testing systems of this kind, there was a means for stopping aimed at preventing a decrease in yield when device failure occurred in either the semiconductor testing device or the probing device. However, it did not control the yield in wafer units and did not detect yield abnormalities of lots. This kind of yield control required human intervention to stop the semiconductor testing system when it reached a specified standard. Also, in order to investigate the cause of the yield abnormalities, it was necessary to know by which measurement data the pellet of the wafer with the yield abnormality was judged to be bad. However, this measurement data was output after a command was sent manually to the semiconductor testing device and then measurement of the pellet was completed and so normally, when yield abnormalities occurred, stopping the device, sending the command, and collecting the measurement data were all performed manually. Also, depending on the semiconductor testing device, there were devices that could store the measurement data, however, storage was controlled in lot units and not in wafer units and so it was not understood which measurement data was that of the wafer with bad yield.
In the prior semiconductor testing device, there was no control device to perform automatic control of the semiconductor device testing system, and so the functions of each device were performed by human intervention, thus yield control, collection of measurement data, and stopping the device were all performed manually.
In this kind of prior semiconductor device testing system, the series of operations; yield control in wafer units, collecting the measurement data of the measured pellet after a yield abnormality, and stopping the device when it reached specified conditions, were all performed manually, therefore it was difficult to reduce the number of people in a line or to create a unmanned line. Also, depending on the semiconductor testing device, there were cases when collection of the measurement data of the bad pellet after a yield abnormality occurred needed to be performed by manual control, which caused decrease in through put of the semiconductor testing device.